Soul Mates
by KatLeePT
Summary: Regina doesn't need to take Robin's heart to be happy, or to have his love. Outlaw Queen. Spoilers!


She still remembers how it felt to have to force some one to love her. After all this time, she hasn't forgotten that the Evil Queen was unlovable. Her son feared her, and the only man she could get in bed was the one whose heart she literally controlled. Even so, he'd wanted to move on from her. He'd been interested in Emma Swan as soon as she'd appeared in town, and it had taken crushing his heart to discourage that interest.

She'd sworn she'd never do it again, that she wouldn't have a man who wouldn't love her for herself, but now as she stands at the brink of disaster, watching yet another thing that Swan has destroyed, she's tempted again to do just that. She watches, with tears welling in her dark eyes, as the man she's come to love, her second chance as it were, embraces his wife who was supposed to be dead, who, by all rights, _should_ be dead except that Emma Swan had to go and meddle in affairs that were not her business once more and bring the woman back to life. Back to life and back to her husband, who Regina loves so much that her heart hurts just watching the two of them together.

Emma's prattling an apology, but Regina can't listen to her now. She stands, staring instead as hands that once willingly worshipped her body now embrace another's curves and lips that she'd foolishly come to believe were all hers taste another's. She stands caught on the precipice between darkness and light, life and death.

It would be so easy, she thinks again. She could freeze everybody in the room and take Robin's heart. No one would be the wiser. She could take his heart and make him hate Marian. She could take his heart and make him still love her.

She remembers giving him her own. She told him he couldn't steal what was freely given to him, and she remembers, too, him telling her to use his heart for the both of them. She tries to smile, but the curve of her dark lips is far more a grimace. She could take his heart, and it wouldn't even be completely without his permission.

She can keep this from happening. She can keep from losing the second love of her life. She can keep Robin as hers. She could take another route, too, and kill Marian, but then he'd hate her if he ever found out.

"Mom?"

At first, the small voice barely penetrates her thoughts, but then she hears him and winces. Henry. If she uses magic again, especially _dark_ magic, she's liable to lose him forever, and he's the only one who's ever truly loved her for herself, outside of Daniel, of course.

She was a fool, Regina realizes in the next second. Robin must never have loved her. If he had, after all, he would not have rushed so swiftly back to Marian. He would not have forgotten all about her and what she'd thought they shared, as his actions now make it so clear he has. He didn't love her. He must not.

Her True Love is dead, and Tinker Bell lied. There is no second chance, especially not for a villain or for True Love. Once you lost love, you lost it forever. Thoughts of Snow White, Prince Charming, the times they've lost each other only to find one another of which she knows, and the fact that they now share one heart, as Robin had told her they could, chase through her mind. But their life and their love is different, she tells herself, for neither of them is evil. Even after she caused her to kill her own mother, Snow White's heart is still far lighter than Regina's. She'll never be the villain she is, and because of that, she's rewarded with a True Love that continues to withstand every test thrown at her.

But Regina . . . Regina is alone again. "Mom?" She looks down into Henry's eyes. Well, maybe not quite alone, she thinks, and that is when the tears begin to fall from her eyes. "Mom, are you okay?"

"I'm fine," she speaks far more harshly than she intends. She dashes angrily at the betraying tears beginning to fall from her eyes and smiles tremulously at her child. "I'm fine, Henry, really. I just need some time to myself to, hum, gather my thoughts." She almost runs from Granny's. She's half afraid that he'll follow her, but the other half, sadly, weakly, wants him to do so. She doesn't want to be alone. She's so afraid she'll spend eternity that way.

Henry turns on his other mother. "Mom, how could you . . . " he starts but stops as she walks right pass him, a look of determination on her face. He's seen that look before and grins as he turns to watch her.

Emma grabs Robin's shoulder and spins him away from his wife. "What if the meaning of . . . " Robin starts to ask her, but she breaks in immediately.

"Forgetting about somebody aren't you?"

He stops, realizing what has happened, what _he's_ done, and pales. "I . . . My . . . My God . . . " Dear God, what _has_ he done? He'd been so excited to see Marian that he'd completely forgotten about the woman to whom he'd recently given his all. Suddenly, Regina is all about which he can think, and he knows he's made a grave mistake.

"Robin, -" Marian starts.

"I'm sorry, Marian, but things are different now. Where'd she go?"

Emma glares at him. "And I should tell you why?"

"So I can make amends, woman! I didn't mean for this to happen! I'll find her myself!" He runs out the door, leaving Emma and Henry gazing at Marian and Roland.

"What have you done?" Marian questions the Savior, but Emma glowers at her.

Emma shakes her head. "Don't even get me started on you," she warns the woman. She's angry at her, although none of this is her fault and, truthfully, far angrier at herself. "If I'd known who you are," she says aloud before she can stop herself, "you'd so be dead!" She hesitates only a moment, then takes Henry's hand and leads them both away from the shocked woman whose mouth is still hanging open. 

* * *

Robin hasn't run far before he spies Regina's elegant back sashaying quickly through the darkness. "Regina!" he calls. "Regina!" She's not stopping, and he triples his pace to catch up to her. Reaching her, he grabs her elbow, spins her around, and stops when he sees her face. Over the last few weeks, he's been so proud to be the one to make that sad face light up with a smile, but now he stands aghast upon seeing the hurt he's caused.

Regina dabs angrily at her eyes. "I should wipe this memory from you."

"Please don't. Please just hear me out. I shouldn't have kissed her just now. I was just . . . " He gropes for the words he needs, but how can he explain what he's done and how wrong he was to kiss his own wife?

"Just what?" she sneers. "Making out with the wife you thought was dead?"

"Well, yes, but . . . "

She sighs. Somehow, her anger at him is already beginning to lessen, but she's still furious with herself, with Emma, with the world and the life into which she has been cast. "It's not your fault, Robin. All you were doing was kissing your wife."

"I was kissing the wrong woman!" he cries, surprising her. "She may be my wife, Regina, but, and as wrong as it is, that was before I met you! I love you!"

"Then why did you kiss her?"

"I . . . I don't know! I was shocked! She _is_ the mother of my child, Regina, and I did think I loved her . . . " His desperately pleading eyes search hers as he tries to explain himself. "But now I know what True Love really is. I don't love her, milady; I just thought I did."

She goes to turn away from him, but he grabs her hand. "Regina, please, listen to me! I didn't know what love was when I married her! I only thought I did! Yes, we had Roland together, and yes, we have a life and a history and passion together! But I should _not_ have kissed her because now I know what True Love is! I know, because you've shown it to me! The only woman I've ever truly _loved_ loved is you, milady! Please believe me!"

"Why should I?"

He drops to his knees before her. Still holding her hand, he takes it beneath his blouse and presses it to his chest so she can feel his heart beating. "When I told you to use my heart for both of us, I did not jest, milady. You have strong magic. Can you not tell why my heart beats?" She freezes, her long, slender fingers arched against his chest. "Can you not tell it beats for you? I would rip it from my body and give it freely to you if I could. I love you!"

"I do not want your heart," she tells him, but her lips are beginning to curve upwards. "At least, not in that way. But tell me, Robin, what do you plan to do? You are still married to her."

"I have to tell her the truth. I have to tell her I love another and ask . . . What is it the people call it these days? A divorce?"

"You would divorce her for me?"

"With or without you in my life, Regina, I will divorce her for it is not fair to any of us if I claim to love a woman I do not. I do not, can not, love her. I love you!"

There's a tiny trace of a smile beginning to chase over her beautiful, tear-streaked face now. "Tell me that another hundred times," she whispers, "and I might begin to believe you."

"I love you! I love you! I love you!" With each proclamation, he kisses her, beginning at her hand and slowly, almost reverently, working his way up her arm. Yet he does not try to stand.

She gazes at him with something strange stirring within her. She's always liked to make people go to their knees before her. She's always enjoyed the sense of power and strength it gives her, but somehow, this is different. She didn't ask Robin to go to his knees. She didn't command him. He offered her his heart, and still, she refuses to take it.

She gazes at the man before her, secretly marveling at what he is doing. He has given her his allegiance. He has given her his love. He is going to leave his wife for her, when, admittedly, she's not altogether sure what she would have done had their roles been reversed and it was Daniel who Emma had brought back instead of Marian. He has gone to his knees before her, worshipping her as the Queen she's always made herself be since she lost what she thought was her only chance of True Love.

But Daniel wasn't her only chance. Perhaps he wasn't even her True Love. She could never have shared a heart with him to keep him alive, as Snow and Charming are doing. He made her feel all kinds of wonderful, but he never worshipped her. He never bowed before her except when he asked her to marry him.

But Robin has. He is doing so even now. He is on his knees before her not because she commanded it of him but because he has chosen to grovel before her. He has chosen to grovel for her not to keep his life or even his heart, which still beats beneath her palm, but to keep her. She gazes at him, a new kind of tears sparkling in her dark eyes, and then speaks before she's even aware she's made up her mind. "Get up."

"My Queen," he tells her, his lips brushing over her tender flesh, "I have given you my allegiance. I have given you my bow. I would give you my heart freely if it could somehow right the wrong I have made against you this night. I have slighted you greatly. I do not deserve your forgiveness, nor even to stand in your presence. I - "

"Get up," she repeats, her mind fully made up, and drags him up to stand before her. Her smile hovers near a smirk as she gazes up into his truthful eyes. "I didn't fall in love with you because you groveled at my feet."

"True," he says, grinning a little. "I never have been one for groveling, but if that is what it takes to win your forgiveness, I will gladly hit my knees again."

"Robin!" she exclaims as he starts to go down again. She pulls him up, and their bodies slide together. "Be the man you are," she tells him, gazing into those wonderful eyes that have finally been giving her sweet dreams at night. "Be the man you want to be. If you want to love Marian, then do so, but if you - "

"I don't." He caresses her face; strands of her raven hair slide between his gloved fingers. "Marian is my past, Regina. She will always be an important part of my life because of the past we share and because of Roland. But she _is_ my past. When she came tonight, I was too shocked. I could scarcely believe she still lived after believing her to be dead for so long. I was blinded to my present, and to my future." He raises her hand to his lips and kisses her once more. "You are both my present and, I dare hope, my future, milady."

"I am if you want me, Robin."

"Oh, I do, milady, I do! I love you!"

"For as long as that is the truth, Robin, for as long as you want and love me of your free will, of your own heart's choosing, I . . . " She's been smiling brilliantly, but now, she hesitates. She will never fully belong to a man. She will always be her own woman. But a part of her, she knows, will always be his. "I will be your lady." It sounds corny, and for this day and time, it is. But not for that from whence they hail.

He beams, kissing her hand again. "That is all I can ask, milady." He starts to lean in to her lips.

"You will still have to divorce her, of course."

"Of course. First thing in the morning."

"The procedures do tend to take a while longer than that," she says, tilting her head back in welcome.

"I am quite certain you can find a way to speed the procedure," he murmurs, lowering his mouth over hers.

She lets him kiss her, all his mistakes forgiven. She knows she would have kissed Daniel, and she still realizes that she might not have been so quick or certain to put their love behind them and choose to be with Robin. She knows, too, she's done a great deal worse than he ever has or will. She thinks once more of Graham, of the heart she demanded to be hers, and marvels again that Robin's heart is hers not by force or by her gripping it in her greedy hands. It is hers, although it still beats proudly in his chest where it belongs, because her True Love has given it to her. She could never ask for more, nor for more of a reason to forgive this wonderful man whose lips are now quickly kissing away the last of her thoughts.

His mouth lifts for just a moment. He's still gazing into her eyes as he vows once more, "I love you, Regina!"

She leans into him. She can feel the truth beating in both of their hearts as she gives herself to him completely. He's already had her heart, but now she gives him a part of her soul she knows she'll never be able to take back, nor want to. Now she understands the true meaning of soul mates as she whispers back, "I love you too, Robin!" Her eyes flutter shut with pleasure as they kiss again, and a long future of True Love and passion stretches out before them.

The End


End file.
